Tiger Invite 2026 Results

The Elmwood Park Tiger Invite tends to be a fast course, but after the huge PRs we saw at last week's Mane Event, a lot of PRs weren't on the table. Our team still had a fantastic meet and we are primed for the post-season.

Full Meet Splits

Girls Varsity Race - Results

Senior Dani Erickson and junior Ashley Ritchey once again supported each other and ran together for the entire race. With about 800 meters to go, they were about five seconds behind the race leader from Montini. At the finish, all three were step-for-step with each other, but Dani ended up crossing the line first with Ashley in third. All three runners were within half a second of each other with Dani crossing in 18:43.0 and Ashley in 18:43.3. 18:43 is the time of the previous Lisle all-time record that Ashley and Dani broke last week, so even if they didn't have such great races last week they would have tied the time at Elmwood Park. Junior Summer Klein had another solid race and finished with a medal in 10th place and a time of 20:01. Junior Jennifer Duban ended up running a season PR of 20:29 with a 13th-place finish and is only 9 seconds off of her season goal and ten seconds away from her lifetime PR that she set as a freshman. She'll reach those times pretty soon. Sophomore Madi Madsen was back in a big way this week and ran a huge season PR of 21:17 to finish in 18th. Sofia Maldonado still isn't used to how cross country works because while she ran a great time of 22:51 to finish in 26th she thought she didn't run well because she didn't run a PR. While Sofia's streak of PRs finally ends, she'll be back on the PR train soon as we enter the post-season. Senior Molly Martin had one of the biggest PRs of the day with her time of 23:15 in 42nd place. She dropped her time by nearly a minute and is getting closer to her lifetime PR.

The Elmwood Park Invite is made up of mostly 2A teams with a few 3A teams thrown in for good measure. Lisle and IC Catholic were the only 1A teams in the field this year. Our girls have consistently gone up against bigger teams and won, though, and that's exactly what they did at Elmwood Park. Dani and Ashley set the tone at the front of the race, but Summer kept with Fenton's pack of three and only finished one place behind them. Jen finished well ahead of Fenton's fourth runner and Madi broke up Fenton's fourth and fifth runners to solidify the 42 to 55 victory. This is the third invite victory for the girls this year as we move on to Conference.

Boys Varsity Race - Results

Luke Erickson was the fastest freshman in the field at Elmwood Park and broke 16:30 for the first time with his 10th-place finish in 16:24. Luke has officially broken into the top 25 of our all-time leaderboard for the boys sitting at 22nd. Breaking 16 minutes, which is a possibility for Luke this year, could get him into the top ten. Junior Liam Newton ran the best race of his career with a lifetime PR of 18:34 to finish in 47th place. His splits of 6:07, 6:22, and 6:05 were fantastic. Speeding up just a little and getting the middle mile faster will get Liam under his season goal of 18 minutes. Junior Charlie Wang was back this week and ran with Liam for the first two miles before falling off a bit in the final mile. He still ended up running a lifetime PR of 19:05 to finish in 63rd. Sophomore Cayden Denhart has run a PR at every meet this year and ran another lifetime PR to finish in 19:08 in 66th place. After breaking 20 minutes for the first time last week, sophomore Blake Madsen was close to breaking it again with his 83rd-place finish in 20:08. Freshman Steven King and senior Aiden Slehofer spent most of the race together and finished in 86th and 87th place, respectively, with times of 20:20 and a season PR for Aiden of 20:21.

Girls Open Race - Results

The freshman trio of Giuliana Rotelli, Hylie Woodhouse, and Lila Helderle ran the first mile together, but Giuliana and Hylie pulled away after that. Giuliana and Hylie stuck together for the second mile but then Giuliana found another gear and had a second great race in a row to finish in 8th place with a time of 24:34. Hylie finished in 9th in 24:54 and Lila was in 15th with a time of 25:38. Sophomore Violet King, who broke 30 minutes for the first time last week, nearly did so again. Violet finished in 37th place with a time of 30:03.

Boys Open Race - Results

Freshman Carson Thomas, who is typically one of our varsity runners, opted to run in the open race in an attempt to earn his first medal of the season. Carson took advantage of that chance and ran a lifetime PR of 19:11 and finished with a medal in 8th place. Senior Simon Klein ran another season PR with his 18th-place finish in 20:34. Senior Lincoln Calfo finished in 38th with a time of 21:53 and senior Ethan George had a lifetime PR of 23:52 his 68th-place finish.

Lion of the Meet

Dani and Ashley's exciting finish to the girls varsity race deserved some consideration for Lion of the Meet honors. Jen and Madi's season PRs and solid races helped lead our team to victory. Molly had the biggest PR of the day and was also up for the Lion of the Meet honor. Luke broke the 16:30 barrier and Charlie, Liam, and Cayden also had lifetime PRs. Aiden had a season PR with his 20:21 finish. Giuliana had back-to-back great races for the first time this season and Violet nearly broke 30 minutes for just the second time. Ethan had a lifetime PR in the boys open race. Our Lion of the Meet honor goes to Carson Thomas, though. Carson has had some up-and-down efforts this season, but has mostly improved every meet as the season has gone forward. He had a huge jump at Elmwood Park with his 19:11 finish and if our boys team wants to make State we need the Carson we saw on Saturday. Congratulations, Carson!